Extrusion Cost

Aluminum Extrusion Cost Estimation: How to Quote Profiles Per Pound

A practical breakdown of what drives aluminum extrusion cost per pound, how to build a quote from metal plus conversion, and the estimating errors that erode margin.

Aluminum extrusion pricing splits into two visible parts: metal and conversion. Metal is a pass-through pegged to Midwest ingot plus a billet premium, often quoted as index plus 8 to 20 cents per pound. Conversion covers press time, dies, labor, energy, aging, and finishing, typically 45 to 90 cents per pound for standard 6063 solids and 90 cents to 1.80 for thin-wall, hollow, or hard-alloy profiles. Quote them separately so metal swings pass through cleanly. The Aluminum Profile Cost per Pound Calculator and the Cost per Pound Calculator help you assemble both layers into one sell price.

Yield is the hidden multiplier on metal cost. If you buy billet at 1.35 per pound and ship at 82 percent yield, your effective metal cost per shipped pound is 1.35 / 0.82 = 1.65, before you add a cent of conversion. Drop to 74 percent yield on a hard-to-run thin wall and that jumps to 1.82, a 17-cent swing that quietly eats margin. Model yield per profile, not plant-average, when quoting. The Aluminum Billet Yield Calculator lets you set butt and crop assumptions specific to the part rather than defaulting to an optimistic number.

Press time is the conversion driver most estimators underprice. If a press costs 350 to 600 per hour fully loaded and runs 200 lb/min of a fat profile, machine cost is roughly 600 / (200 times 60) = 5 cents per pound. A thin, low-ratio profile that only moves 60 lb/min carries 600 / 3,600 = 17 cents per pound of press time for the same press. Speed, set by exit rate and cycle dead time, is where identical alloys diverge threefold in cost. Use the Extrusion Press Cycle Output Calculator and Press Utilization Calculator to convert real lb/hr into cost per pound.

Die cost is amortized, not free, and undercharging kills small runs. A solid die runs 800 to 1,800 and a hollow porthole die 2,500 to 6,000. Spread across a 2,000 lb first order, a 3,000 die adds 1.50 per pound; across 40,000 lb of repeat volume it is 7.5 cents. Decide the amortization order quantity up front and state die charges plainly. The Extrusion Die Cost Amortization Calculator computes per-pound die recovery across expected run sizes so you neither scare off the order nor eat correction cost.

Scrap recovery is a real credit, so net it against metal cost instead of ignoring it. At 18 percent scrap and a remelt or dealer value of, say, 0.85 per pound when prime billet is 1.35, each shipped pound carries about 0.18 / 0.82 times 0.85 = 19 cents of scrap that returns roughly 12 to 13 cents of credit. Quoting metal on gross billet without the scrap credit overstates cost and loses bids. The Aluminum Extrusion Scrap Recovery Value calculator quantifies the offset so your net metal number is defensible.

Labor, aging, and finishing round out conversion. Direct press crew of four at loaded 40 per hour against 3,000 lb/hr is 160 / 3,000 = 5 cents per pound. T5 aging adds energy and oven amortization near 3 to 6 cents; anodizing runs 25 to 60 cents per pound and painting 20 to 45, quoted per square foot of surface, not weight, so thin high-surface profiles cost more to finish than their weight suggests. Break finishing out as a line item tied to surface area, not lumped into the base conversion rate.

The estimates that blow up share three errors. First, plant-average yield applied to a profile that actually runs 8 points worse. Second, forgetting minimum billet and setup charges, so a 500 lb order priced at repeat rates loses money on the first push and stretcher setup. Third, quoting metal flat while ingot moves 15 cents mid-contract. Fix all three with index-linked metal, part-specific yield, and a stated minimum lot. Run the numbers through the Aluminum Profile Cost per Pound Calculator, then sanity-check margin at both today's and a plus-15-cent metal price.

Published 2026-07-01.